Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has said that his team will not be bringing anything major to the fourth round of the season in Imola due to the lack of practice time the teams will have.
An hour-long practice session will be followed by Friday qualifying as Formula 1 embarks on the first of three sprint events next weekend, so the teams will be extremely restricted in their ability to trial new parts.
Ferrari were anticipated to introduce an upgrade that would help them save weight and, while one or two aspects of the car may be different, Binotto has stressed that Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will need to prioritise qualifying preparation over testing new parts.
“I think it will be a difficult weekend in respect of bringing updates and trying to evaluate them in the Friday practice, because you need obviously to focus yourself on the quali of the afternoon,” he told Motorsport.com.
“If we will look at ourselves, there will not be much in Imola because again, we believe it will not be the right place.
“But we will try to mitigate the issues we have got still so far. I’m thinking of the porpoising and the bouncing that has affected our performance over the weekend.”
He therefore tells the Tifosi to hang tight until a little later on in the year for the next “significant” alteration to the F1-75.
“So we again try to work on that specific point. But, for the upgrades and more, let me say significant ones, it will be for later on in the season,” Binotto added.
Ferrari have made an exceptional start to 2022, winning two of the opening three rounds of the season through Charles Leclerc, with Carlos Sainz ensuring a one-two finish in Bahrain.
The Spaniard followed the Monegasque across the line for a double podium finish behind Max Verstappen in Jeddah, but his nightmare weekend in Australia has been the only blemish to what has been the Scuderia’s best ever start to a season points wise.
The Scuderia spent a large chunk of last year preparing for the new regulations that have tossed the form book out the window this year, but Binotto admits he didn’t expect to gain quite as much as they have as a result.
“I’m certainly surprised. I think we worked hard and we put a lot of priority on to 2022. I knew that the team was a great team and we somehow improved ourselves compared to the past seasons,” explained the Italian.
“I was hoping to have a competitive car for the start of season… but certainly I was not expecting such a good start to the season. I think it would be unfair to think that.
“But I still believe that the difference between us and the others can be very little. I think the past races have proved it, and will be a great fight in the next races certainly.”
READ: Binotto reveals plans for Imola upgrades as Red Bull poised to go ‘on par’ with Ferrari
It was put to the 52-year-old that the downforce of the Ferrari has been a determining factor in their ability to conserve their tyres, but Binotto places more emphasis on overall balance – Ferrari seem able to compete with Red Bull on the straight while remaining superior in the corners.
“I think that having a well-balanced car was a key element in the view of tyre management, and the drivers managed well. I think Charles did a pretty good job in that,” he affirmed.
“I don’t think that the downforce level was an element because, if I look at the speed on the straights, if I look at our direct competitors, I think that finally they ran a higher downforce level compared to what they had, for example, in Jeddah, and they were a lot closer to us.”
Ferrari lead the Constructors’ Championship by 39 points from Mercedes, who have taken advantage of Red Bull’s reliability woes to score two podiums, one through Sir Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain and the second through George Russell in Australia.